eternal flame

[ ih-tur-nl fleym ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a contained fire ignited ceremonially and kept burning, usually in a public place and as a perpetual memorial or symbol:
On our trip to the United States we visited the grave of President John F. Kennedy, where there is an eternal flame.
The Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima features an eternal flame symbolizing the hope for a world free of nuclear weapons.
a fire ignited naturally or accidentally, sometimes burning underground, and fueled by deposits of coal or natural gas that keep it from going out:
At the Burning Mountain in Australia, an eternal flame has been slowly burning underground for 6,000 years.

First recorded in 1590–1600

And Kennedy, whose grave at Arlington is marked by an eternal flame?

And Paris too is a motor, a boiler in which the future is boiling, while we scientists keep the eternal flame burning underneath.

It has planted misery and wretchedness in this world; it peoples the future with selfish joys and lurid abysses of eternal flame.

Tragedy in neat blouses; the eternal flame all nice and safe in a kerosene stove.

No one had power to burn their bodies, but it was hoped that their souls would not escape the torment of eternal flame.

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